Alexander believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his Writing Workshop. A regular speaker at schools and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world—including Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, and recently, Ghana—planting seeds of literary love.

“We are thrilled that Kwame, one of the most inspiring authors in America today, will join us for our second festival,” announced Brittany Mathis, director of the Charleston Friends of the Library, one of the sponsors of the festival. Other sponsors include the South Carolina Humanities, the YWCA of Greater Charleston, the YMCA of Greater Charleston, the Avery Research Center, CharlestonGood, and the Lagunitas Brewing Company .

South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors

Earlier this month, The National Endowment for the Humanities chose Brattleboro as the site for a new $150,000 multi-year “Creating Humanities Communities” matching grant to illuminate and share greater Brattleboro area’s rich history of words — stories, literature, publishing, printing — with a goal of cultivating a greater sense of place for those who live, work, play, and raise families here, as well as to attract and inform visitors.

Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Professor of Theater and Dance Sarah Bay-Cheng will be heading to the campus of the University of Georgia next June to teach other theater professors how to get the most out of digital technologies.

Bay-Cheng and her colleague from UGA, David Saltz, have been awarded a grant to co-direct the NEH Institute on Digital Technologies in Theater and Performance Studies. The two- week program will introduce theater and performance faculty to the ways in which digital culture is transforming their field, and help them expand their knowledge and expertise.

“I’m excited about this grant because it speaks to the growing significance of digital scholarship in theater and performance studies and I believe it will help to enhance and expand research in this area.” said Bay-Cheng.

There are many college courses offered specifically for veterans, but not many aboutveterans.

That will change in the spring semester at Missoula College with a new course on veterans studies, made possible by a $97,000 grant from the National Endowment For The Humanities.

Associate Dean Clint Reading said the idea came from a retired officer with the U.S. Army who is studying for her doctorate at the University of Montana.

“We were approached by a grad student at the University of Montana, Lt. Col. Elizabeth Barrs, who came to us from Eastern Kentucky University, where she had been teaching a very similar course. So, she’s here now and working on a PhD, and is very keen on keeping that research going. She approached us and we found a grant and the ball got rolling.”

Reading said the course will look at the history of U.S. military veterans, from the Revolutionary War to the present Gulf War conflicts.

One of the great community newspapermen died Aug. 12 in his hometown of Anacortes. Wallie Funk was 95 years old.

As journalist, photographer and publisher, Funk documented the lives of countless people in the pages of the Whidbey News-Times and the Anacortes American.

Funk famously donated tens of thousands of photographs to museums and received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for archiving; his photos have been part of several art exhibits, including one at Western Washington University called “When Local Becomes National: The Legacy and Impact of Pacific Northwest Photojournalist Wallie V. Funk.”

A couple of years ago, he published a book entitled “Pictures of the Past” about the history of Anacortes.